jon: let's turn our attention to syria. the bloodshed goes on there, some would say that it has been, i mean, that world attention has been focused on what's been going on between hamas and the israelis, maybe the egyptian protests while the syrians continue to kill their own people with the support of iran. what do you think? >> yeah, i mean, look, you know, it's coming up now on two years since relatively peaceful demonstrations turned into, essentially, a civil war. and the reality is there has been so much blood that has been spilled, that it's going to negate the possibility of a negotiated settlement between the assads and the opposition and, tragically, not enough blood has been spilled in order to prompt a divided international community, and the administration is very warily -- i would argue rightly, frankly -- about getting dragged into an open-ended military intervention ford to topple the assads. maybe there's a few more things we can do. arming some of the rebels that we vet, maybe considering up a sort of pass